VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
SU teams up with CNY Guiding Eyes for the Blind to raise service dogs on campus
Victoria Daly: Wynette is a puppy in training. Artemis is a retired service dog. Mackenzie Mallory, a Syracuse University grad student, is raising Wynette — while Mary Oonk, a regional coordinator for guiding eyes for the blind, once raised Artemis. They’re all at different stages in life, but share the same mission: helping others.
Daly: For the past two years, guiding eyes has partnered with Syracuse University’s Service Dog Club. Oonk says college campuses are the perfect environment for training future guide dogs.
Mary Oonk: One of the best things that the students can do is that they really have a real life situation. The dogs work with the students, they walk through the busy hallways of campus buildings.
Daly: As much as the busy college life helps the dogs, it’s a commitment for students. Mallory doesn’t get downtime.
Mackenzie Mallory: I had my regular schedule but now that I have her I have to come back and take her to the bathroom, take her on walk, make sure she’s fed and happy.
Daly: Guiding Eyes does what they can in the between to support the student raisers. They host trainings monthly with community volunteers and students to work on hands-on training.
Daly: Oonk left me with one important line.
Oonk: I had a guide dog user once say, ‘puppy raising is a commitment to making someone else’s life better.’
SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC NEWS) – Syracuse University students and Central New York’s Guiding Eyes for the Blind share a “furry” relationship. Students, through SU’s Service Dog Club, are given the opportunity to puppy raise or sit on campus. This means students get the opportunity to help train a dog who will go on and provide service to an individual.
“A great opportunity if you love dogs and love working with dogs to be able to do that, but also know you’re gonna have a real significant impact on somebody’s life,” Mary Oonk, a volunteer regional co-coordinator for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, said.
Syracuse student Mackenzie Mallory, turned Oonk’s words into reality as she is a student-raiser on Syracuse’s campus. She balances school life and raising and training a puppy.
Mallory said her daily routine has definitely changed since raising her puppy.
“I had my regular schedule, but now that I have her I have to come back and take her to the bathroom, take her on walks, make sure she’s fed and happy,” Mallory said. “Sometimes I don’t get any downtime because she wants to play all the time.”
Oonk says that the student relationship with their dog is special as dogs raised on college campus experience a lot of real world scenarios that will translate to the real world when they work as service dogs.
“Whether they walk through a crowd of students or they have to settle while they’re waiting with their puppy raiser who is in class, whether they’re in the cafeteria and need to avoid food that is dropped on the floor; those are all good experiences for them, so one day when they are guide dogs they will use that to be a productive working guide dog,” Oonk said.
If you are interested in how you can volunteer and work with Guiding Eyes for the Blind reach out to them at centralnyregion@guidingeyes.net or Syracuse’s Service Dog Club.